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Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

vice.com

211–220 of 234 posts

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>sure, and people can draw their own conclusions about a "marketplace" allowing morally reprehensible products on it, and whether to purchase from them in the future. How can a piece of dyed cloth be "morally reprehensible"? I don't think books should be banned, nor should flags. If that's how folks want to express themselves, then so be it. That doesn't mean I need to be chummy with people who hold views in accord w…

that's quite a screed you wrote there. you must feel very strongly about it. amazon has made the choice to exclude ISIS flags, and exact copies of nazi flags, so it's curious why one is allowed and not the other. your position seems to be from the free-market/libertarian angle that people can print and publish anything they want, sure, okay, whatever... the logical conclusion of this in the free market is that amazon…

If you refer to things people say that you disagree with as "screeds," they'll eventually stop talking to you.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#212
post #8

The marketplace-ization (is there a word for that?) of every retailer feels so short sighted. I’ll throw out an example I’ve noticed lately - furniture manufacturers. Search for any item on Crate & Barrel or West Elm’s website and you’ll first see a handful of exclusive pieces that are clearly built for the brand. Keep scrolling and the search results gradually become a bunch of generic third party items that you can…

I don't know Crate & Barrel's situation, but this is a common pattern to extract money from a brand with a good reputation. Previously exhibited by every (formerly) US appliance brand and most local newspapers.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#214
post #178
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was that from Walmart the retailer or someone else selling on Walmart's marketplace? I would be very surprised if Walmart itself resold you something from Amazon, but that does happen with third party retailers on their marketplace.

There isn’t a clearly identifiable difference anymore.

There is. The retailer is listed.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's quite a screed you wrote there. you must feel very strongly about it. amazon has made the choice to exclude ISIS flags, and exact copies of nazi flags, so it's curious why one is allowed and not the other. your position seems to be from the free-market/libertarian angle that people can print and publish anything they want, sure, okay, whatever... the logical conclusion of this in the free market is that amazon…

If you refer to things people say that you disagree with as "screeds," they'll eventually stop talking to you.

>If you refer to things people say that you disagree with as "screeds," they'll eventually stop talking to you.

A fair point. Although I expect you'd be just as effective if you'd just catted it to /dev/null.

I'll paraphrase what I said in my original comment: "Just because you don't agree with the ideas presented by others, it doesn't mean that those others are angry and their presentation of such ideas is a 'screed'."

That some folks don't get that is unfortunate, but not all that unexpected.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#216
post #45

A third party seller did, not Walmart.. However, Walmart itself did recently sell me an OEM 'not for resale' labeled hard drive, so there is some strangeness going on in their warehouse just like at Amazon

Walmart is *endorsing* any subcontractor. I literally do not care what back-end contractor of theirs is doing. My transaction is conducted on walmart.com , my credit card transaction goes to a walmart account, and my credit card bill shows a walmart line-item. This "redirecting responsibility" to somewhere else is the fraudulent grift going on there. Walmart wants to put their name on transactions? Make them live wit…

Oh, I agree, but I can't think of any major US retailer that does not do this 3rd-party stuff. Amazon, Walmart, Newegg all do.

I guess Target doesn't (yet).

It's frustrating to explain to older parents, "You have to pick, "Sold by [Walmart|Amazon]", or it could be anyone!" and not have them understand.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#217
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The substitution thing has worked well for me - they now alert you in the app before and you can yes/no the substitution. You can also mark “ride or die” on items and if they can’t get it they don’t substitute. I don’t recall if they upcharge for more expensive substitution now - before it was free, which was a bit abuseable.

> You can also mark “ride or die” on items Is that what the mark is called, "ride or die"? That would be very un-corpo-like, but I would welcome it.

It’d be nice but it’s called “allow substitutions” or something. Maybe the database column is r-or-d

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate to break it to you but both Target and Walmart sell third-party goods too. So does DigiKey…

I know, but as far as I know they do not commingle inventory.

So basically shit cake without the shit icing?

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#219

I try to keep abreast of SSD prices, as I've been looking to swap out the spinning rust on my ESXi server with SSDs, but the prices are still a bit too high for my taste, and that hasn't changed much over the past few years. Which is why I was really surprised to see this both on Vice and ArsTechnica[0]. A quick web search for "4TB external SSD" shows prices in the USD$400-600 range. So 30TB for ~USD$40 seems too goo…

I think that "too good to be true" is an intentional strategy in these kinds of listings. This way, the only people who buy it are those who don't know better, and probably won't realize they were scammed. They'll just buy it because they know 30 > 1 or 2, so it must be better. If you sell a scam device that seems like plausibly real deal, you might have a bunch of buyers who actually know what they're doing, intend…

>I think that "too good to be true" is an intentional strategy in these kinds of listings. This way, the only people who buy it are those who don't know better, and probably won't realize they were scammed. They'll just buy it because they know 30 > 1 or 2, so it must be better.

That's quite possibly true]0]. Presumably Joe Bessemer would agree.

[0] But not too good to be!

Edit: Added snark as footnote.

Re: Walmart Sells Fake 30TB Hard Drive That's Two Small SD Cards

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and I know how the marketplace system works. My 70 year old uncle might just -reasonably- assume that buying from walmart.com is the same as walking into the store, and comes with the same return and quality guarantees. Stuff in the store is very much vetted, and individually chosen. Shelf space is an incredibly valuable commodity and any retailer knows not to just give it away. I don't know why e-store search re…

> My 70 year old uncle might just -reasonably- assume that buying from walmart.com is the same as walking into the store, and comes with the same return and quality guarantees. And that is exactly the deception the Walton family wants out of this.

Maybe, but I kind of doubt it.

They might make a $6 commission on a sale like this. After you get done dealing with the labor cost of handling an angry customer, return shipping, and the loss of future business you start start losing money that even the most short sighted of execs can understand… er… should understand

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